Re: How I fixed my M4 that wouldn't detect in the BIOS

targetbsp wrote:

This. IIRC, 010G was particularly bad for 'losing' your drive.

Thanks. I was on 0009, and it was fine for the first 6000 hours of use, then the problems started. I had no idea it was down to firmware, as I'd had a stable firmware since day one. I got it to work one day, took a copy of the drive onto a spare HDD, and switched. That started getting horrendously slow (probably needed a defrag among other things) so I was looking to get a new SSD, when I found the firmare issue. I only updated the firmware today, and so far so good.

targetbsp wrote:

Or resolving whatever problem is causing your PC to crash or lose power unexpectedly as that cause cause the drive to vanish too.

That's useful to know, in case I lose it again, even with current firmware, thanks.

Re: How I fixed my M4 that wouldn't detect in the BIOS

Had one of my M4s disappear just then.. had a bit of a moment with the computer, when I rebooted it was stuck and not moving forward. Once I figured one of the drives was "gone" did this trick and RAID0 is back.

Re: How I fixed my M4 that wouldn't detect in the BIOS

Hi all,

Just went through the same burden today (a 512GB Crucial M4 2.5" SSD failing all of a sudden), and this thread helped a lot. Around five minutes ago, following a mix of instructions from this read, I was able to see the SSD on a different computer using an external SATA adaptor and am now backing up all important files as I write.

Thank you all very much! You saved around three years of work. Thanks again and remember to back-up your stuff!

== Detailed procedure ==

[Failure description] The SSD was part of a Dell Precision M4800. I got to work on a regular Monday, docked the laptop on my table, booted it up and started working. I had to put it into Sleep and it never came back, same symptoms as everyone's: missing from BIOS and from the Boot menu. Placing a spare HDD/SSD in the disk slot works just fine, which makes me believe the Crucial M4 is faulty.

[How I got it working] Used a spare work laptop and an external HDD case. This one uses a separate 5V power brick instead of a second USB plug for power, so I could leave it on for how long I wanted without plugging the USB cable to the laptop and avoid data connection while keeping it powered. After several power cycles, I left it on for about 15 minutes with the data cable plugged in. Windows suddenly sees the disk and allows me in, so I start backing up everything. It's acting kinda slow for an SSD, but it might be the anything from the SATA controller to the number of folders that need to be created during the copy.

Re: How I fixed my M4 that wouldn't detect in the BIOS

I have the same problem.

But it appears every 2-3 days now.

I understand now, that my computer my loose power, when I turn it down? Is that right?

It is a pain to do that procedure every 2 days...

Could it be that the SSD is still working, while the computer already thinks it is ready to turn itself off? So it disconnects the power? I am using my SSD on a extra SATA controller (not directly from the mainboard), so I can have 6GB speed instead of 3GB.

Re: How I fixed my M4 that wouldn't detect in the BIOS

Another WOW! for you. Your workaround continues to help those who own these SSD's. I followed the steps you suggested and got my SSD back. Thanks a million for sharing. I registered in the forum just to say thank you.